A man placed under house arrest while awaiting trial for drug charges was apprehended after escaping an ankle bracelet and eluding law enforcement for almost three weeks.

Kyle Modlin, 27, was arrested Monday at a residence in the Modlin’s Mobile Home Park in Bath. At the time, he was wearing a Colt 10 mm pistol on his hip and was in possession of a .22 caliber revolver, methamphetamine, digital scales and packaging materials, according to a press release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Because Modlin is not a convicted felon, his rights to possess a firearm were still protected, so his possession of the two handguns resulted in no additional charges, according to BCSO Drug Unit Lt. Russell Davenport.

“In this case, he (Modlin) failed to do what he was obligated to do and continued to sell meth,” Davenport said.

As to the charges for which Modlin was originally under house arrest, he and six others were arrested in July when BCSO investigators broke up a meth distribution operation at Modlin’s home on Broad Creek Road.

Modlin was charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver methamphetamine, maintaining a dwelling for purpose of selling and storing methamphetamines and possession of marijuana. At the time, he was out on bond from the Beaufort County Detention Center for a previous charge of distributing meth. During that arrest, his bond was set at $100,000.

Modlin was placed on house arrest in August as part of the BCSO’s Pretrial Release Program, according to the release. Davenport says that this program is meant to help alleviate overcrowded conditions at the Beaufort County Detention Center.

On Nov. 27, investigators received information from a concerned citizen that Modlin had slipped the ankle bracelet and was still using and selling methamphetamine. After executing a search warrant on his residence, deputies found the ankle monitor and drug paraphernalia, but Modlin was gone.

Davenport says because the GPS-based ankle bracelet was slipped over Modlin’s foot, and not cut or tampered with, the device did not issue a tampering alert to law enforcement.

“We follow up and they’re monitored by the GPS, but there was no way of knowing this time that he had slipped it off,” Davenport said. “Normally when you tamper with it or slip it off, it would give the officer in charge of the program an alert that they had tampered with it.”

Investigators caught up with Modlin on Monday at the Modlin’s Mobile Home Park residence. He was charged with interference with an electronic monitoring device, possession with intent to sell and deliver methamphetamine and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Modlin was confined in the Beaufort County Detention Center under a $280,000 secured bond.